Resource adapter compatibility

CICS® Transaction Gateway can be used with earlier versions of the resource adapters.

CICS Transaction Gateway can facilitate communications with CICS through resource adapters that are at the same version as CICS Transaction Gateway or at an earlier version. If you are migrating CICS Transaction Gateway to a later version, you can optionally migrate the earlier version resource adapters to the same level as CICS Transaction Gateway but this is not mandatory.

The following rules apply when using different versions of CICS Transaction Gateway and resource adapters:

  • You can use a remote Gateway daemon with earlier version resource adapters that are still in support.
  • You cannot use a remote Gateway daemon with later version resource adapters.
  • When using the local mode, the resource adapter and CICS Transaction Gateway versions must be the same.
  • You cannot mix earlier and later versions of resource adapters on the same Java™ EE application server node.
Note:
  • To find out which version number a resource adapter has, see the information provided by the application server for the resource adapter version. For example if you are using IBM® WebSphere® Application Server, use the Administration Console to view the deployment descriptor for the installed resource adapter.
  • The upward compatibility for the resource adapters is maintained, so that older resource adapters work with newer Gateway daemons, but after a release of CICS Transaction Gateway is out of support, no compatibility testing is done for the out of support resource adapters.

For information about supported Java EE application servers, see Java EE application servers

If you are using WebSphere Application Server, you can use the update RAR function to upgrade an existing installed version of the ECI resource adapter, provided that the versions are compatible and the resource adapters implement the same version of the JCA specification.

You can:

Upgrade the resource adapter from CICS Transaction Gateway V8.1, V9.0, or V9.1or V9.2 to a later release, because they all implement the JCA 1.7 specification.

Note: You cannot upgrade from CICS Transaction Gateway V7.2 or V8.0 to the V8.1, V9.0, V9.1, V9.2 or V9.3 resource adapter, because of differences between the JCA 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 specifications. If you attempt such an upgrade, for example, from CICS Transaction Gateway Version 8.0 to the 9.0 resource adapter, the upgrade will be rejected with the message:
Error: Incompatibilities were found when comparing the new RAR with the selected 
resource adapter or resource adapters. The following incompatibilities were found: 

Error J2CA0660I: The new RAR file is not compatible with the Resource Adapter. 
The JCA Spec versions of the Resource Adapter and RAR are different. Resource Adapter JCA 
version: 1.5. RAR File JCA Version: 1.6.